Dr Tarisa Watanagase, Governor, Bank of Thailand

Dr Tarisa Watanagase is the Governor of the Bank of Thailand, the first female governor in the bank’s 64-year history. An economist, Dr Watanagase joined the central bank in 1975. She was appointed deputy governor in 1992. She holds a doctoral degree in economics from Washington University and has experience in every key department, including monetary policy, money market, supervision and payment systems. She served as an economist at the International Monetary Fund from 1988 to 1990.

Mr Edmund Koh, President, Ta Chong Bank

Mr Edmund Koh moved to Ta Chong Bank as President since 28 April 2008 with twenty years of senior management experience in the banking industry. Most recently, he was a Managing Director and Head of Regional Consumer Banking Group at DBS Bank in Singapore. During his tenure at DBS between 2001 and 2008, Mr Koh had significantly grown DBS’ consumer banking franchise across Asia. Prior to DBS, he was Chief Executive Officer of Prudential Assurance Company, the second largest insurance company in Singapore, after leading various functions at Citibank for six years. Mr Koh worked at HSBC Group between 1988 and 1994.

Dr Muliaman D. Hadad, Deputy Governor, Bank of Indonesia

Dr Muliaman Hadad was appointed as Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia in 2006. He was the Director of the Directorate of Banking Research and Regulation in 2005 and in 2003, was appointed as Head of the Financial System Stability Bureau. During his service at Bank Indonesia, he helped created the Indonesian Banking Architecture. He played a significant role in Bank Indonesia internal transformation. He is also serving in the management of the Indonesian Economist Association (ISEI) as Secretary General, and lecturer at several universities in Jakarta.

Mr Wilson Chia, Regional Head, South East Asia, Consumer Banking Group, Standard Chartered Bank

Mr Wilson Chia is the Regional Head for South East Asia covering Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, and Vietnam. He joined Standard Chartered as Head of Cards in 1986 from Visa International during which he was the Chief Financial Officer, Asia Pacific, bringing with him a significant level of experience in credit card marketing and financial management. He subsequently assumed a number of increasingly senior roles in Marketing & Sales, Distribution, and Product Management in the Bank. He was appointed as Country Head, Consumer Banking, Singapore in 1997 before assuming the current role of Regional Head, South East Asia in 2004. In 2004, Wilson was awarded the Asia Outstanding Retail Banker of the Year 2003 by The Asian Banker.

Ms Moey Tan, Chief Operating Officer, Personal Financial Services, Hong Leong Bank, Malaysia

Ms Moey Tan is responsible for the overall consumer banking business, for Hong Leong Bank.  As COO, she built and evolved the consumer business model from a conventional sales culture to a consumer planning process by building data driven insights and information for strategy and product development. Prior to this, Moey was the Country Marketing Director for Citibank Malaysia.  She helped transformed Citibank Malaysia into a consumer marketing organisation and helped strengthened its brand equity into a top position despite having only 3 branches (a distribution share of less than 1% in the Malaysian banking industry).  She received Malaysia’s premier advertising award, The Golden Kancil Award, a first in the financial institution industry. Under her stewardship, it also became the first Malaysian bank to win the MasterCard Asia Pacific for Best Marketing Program award.

Mr Francois Bloch, Chief Investment Officer, Amas Bank, Switzerland

Mr Francois Bloch is Chief Investment Officer of Amas Bank (Switzerland), a member of the Hinduja group, one of the largest family conglomerates worldwide with 30,000 employees. He heads the asset management, fund trading and structured products business and is editor of a daily market letter, which reflects current trends in the market. Prior to joining Amas Bank, Francois headed the structured products business for Dexia Privatebank (Switzerland) Ltd and Bank Leumi (Switzerland) Ltd. He also co-managed top-performing money market funds during his tenure with Coutts Bank (Switzerland).

Dr John Zuo, Senior Vice President, Risk Management, Wachovia

Dr John Zuo is a senior vice president at Wachovia, the fourth largest bank in the US in terms of assets. He is the manager of analytics and modeling group that supports the credit underwriting and portfolio management for small business lending at Wachovia. His group is responsible for strategic analytics and statistical modeling in the areas that include new credit origination, existing credit renewal, early warning system, delinquency collections, dynamic risk rating, and Basel II implementation. Dr Zuo has more than 10 years of extensive experience in risk management in the US financial industry, including tenures at Wachovia, First Union National Bank (Home Equity), Citibank (Consumer Credit Card), and Advanta (Business Credit Card). Dr Zuo was a faculty member of College of Management at Zhejiang University in China from 1985 to 1991, when he was a deputy director of Institute of Management Sciences.

Dr Martin Maurer, General Secretary, Association of Foreign Bank, Switzerland

Dr Martin Maurer is the General Secretary of the Association of Foreign Banks in Switzerland, a position which he held since April 2001. Prior to this, he was a banking consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Previously, he was in charge of different commissions and working groups on financial market regulations and accounting issues where he was the general secretary of the Swiss Bankers’ Association. He also represented the Swiss National Bank in the Swiss negotiation groups on capital export and liberalization of financial services in the EEA-treaty negotiation when he was an economist with the bank. Dr Maurer has a Ph.D from Basel University.

Mr Clifford S. Lawrence, Senior Vice President, Asia Regional Manager, International Financial Services, Wells Fargo & Company

Mr Clifford Lawrence is a senior vice president and Wells Fargo's senior officer in Asia responsible for overseeing the growth and development of Wells Fargo's businesses throughout Asia. He provides strategic leadership, oversees the management of Wells Fargo's business relationships with U.S.
and non-U.S. businesses and financial institutions, and represents Wells Fargo to financial regulators and government officials. Lawrence has held various positions within Wells Fargo's domestic wholesale banking groups including the Loan Adjustment Group and the Commercial Banking Group in San Francisco; Palo Alto, Calif.; Spokane, Wash.; and Boise, Idaho. He has broad knowledge and experience in domestic and international financial services. He is also a director and officer of many non-profit organisations.

Mr Dan Nordale, Managing Director, Retail Banking Solutions, Genesys

As Managing Director of Genesys Strategic Solutions in Retail Banking, Nordale leads the strategy, business development, sales and development for the new market innovations of the Company.  The Retail Banking Strategic Solutions team works with banks to dramatically improve sales and service performance by enabling effective cross-channel banking strategies. Previously, Nordale has served in many capacities at Genesys, all focused on new market innovations.  Those roles include leading Genesys’ Enterprise Solutions, Voice Service, Business Consulting, Services Business Development, and Global Marketing. Prior to joining Genesys, Nordale was a Project Manager with Harmon Ltd., which included managing the façade construction of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the Getty Center in Los Angeles.  Prior to Harmon, Nordale worked in auditing and consulting with KPMG. Nordale holds a bachelor's degree in accounting and finance from University of Alaska Fairbanks and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.

Mr Angus Ogilvy, Regional Director, Nielsen Financial Solutions, Asia Pacific

Mr Angus Ogilvy is the regional director of Nielsen Financial and Nielsen Automotive Solutions in Asia Pacific with over 20 years of research experience. He was formerly the deputy managing director, Europe for NOP World and has worked for both global research players and also research based consultancies specializing in customer loyalty and customer/stakeholder behavior management. Mr Ogilvy used to conduct customer loyalty & employee engagement studies for most of the leading UK retail banks &insurance companies plus working with customer contact centres to minimize the negative impact on brands when handling customer contacts for assistance or to complain. He is also experienced in running mystery shopping studies & working with clients on integrated score card solutions to draw insights from multiple sources

Mr John Heptonstall, Managing Director and Group CEO, TWC Consulting Group

Mr John Heptonstall is managing director and Group CEO of the TWC Consulting Group, a subsidiary of MMM International. He has over 20 years expertise and experience in working with clients in corporate transformation, performance management, management effectiveness, and strategy dynamics. Under his leadership, TWC Consulting was transformed from a training provider with four members into a highly respected management consulting practice with some over 30 consultants. He brings vast cross-industry, cross-functional expertise and extensive multinational experience into every assignment. John was a member of the California Awards for Performance Excellence (CAPE) Board of Examiners, 01/02; is a member of the Malaysian Association of Professional Speakers, and an active member of the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC).

Mr Ashok Gopal, Principal Consultant - Asia Pacific, The Gallup Organisation

Ashok Gopal is a Singapore based senior consultant for The Gallup Organisation. His work covers the entire Asia Pacific region around Gallup’s HumanSigma Practice. Over the past decade, Ashok has consulted with over 100 organisations across the Asia Pacific region in the areas of customer and employee engagement. Quantifying the business impact of human potential has become his primary focus of work over the past few years, especially in the Asian context.  It is in this context that he has co-authored Gallup’s book, “Follow This Path – How the World’s Leading Organisations Unleash Human Potential”. Ashok also writes regularly for a variety of management journals and lectures frequently at various industry fora in the region. He had an article on ‘The New Indian Consumer’ published in the Harvard Business Review in October 2006.

Mr Paul Edwards, Managing Director, NCR Thailand

As NCR managing director for Thailand, Paul Edwards has overall responsibility for NCR’s operations in Thailand. With a decade of banking experience and a further decade of electronic banking experience, Paul has built an impressive track record of managing customer accounts.  Paul charts the strategic direction of NCR Thailand and ensures its leading position in the market. Paul was previously sales manager at NCR for Australia & New Zealand. Prior to joining NCR in 2004, Paul held Account Manager and later Sales Manager positions at Diebold Australia.  Paul holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of New England, Armidale.

Mr Jeetendra Kumar, Managing Director, South Asia, Pitney Bowes Software

Jeetendra Kumar (JK) is based at the Asia Pacific regional headquarters in Singapore, where he leads a team in execution of the expansion of Pitney Bowes Software in ASEAN and SAARC (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh). Pitney Bowes Software delivers high-value Customer Communication Management (CCM) and Location Intelligence solutions through direct and indirect channels. Prior to this role, JK was heading channels business for Pitney Bowes Group1 Software for Asia Pacific and Japan.

Mr Charlie Hamdan, Director, Product Management, Commercial Banking, TCS Financial Solutions

Mr Charlie Hamdan is the director of product management for commercial banking at TCS Financial Solutions, and is responsible for the TCS BaNCS universal banking product strategy and direction worldwide. Charlie has more than 20 years of experience in various roles within the financial services industry ranging from software development management, product strategy and sales support management with Retail, Corporate and Wholesale Banking. Charlie has led and participated in many consulting assignments to a number of banks globally working with bank executives, CIOs and operational heads on various strategic initiatives and business best practice in various areas within Treasury, Risk Management and business processes transformation programs.

Mr David R. Lindberg, Vice President and Head of FMCG Australia, First Manhattan Consulting Group

Mr David Lindberg is a Vice President of First Manhattan Consulting Group, and head of the Australian office and has led large strategy engagements for major U.S. and international financial institutions. David has developed a wide line of business experience in most consumer segments, leading client engagements in Branch-banking, Deposits, Mortgage, Small Business/SME, Asset Finance, Insurance, and Call Center sales and servicing. He is skilled in developing and refining his client’s banking strategies, with recent work in overall retail/commercial strategy, value proposition design, de novo branch expansion, sales and retention improvement, performance measurement, incentive compensation, customer/product profitability, and cost management.

Prof. Brett King, Vice President, International, American Academy of Financial Management

Prof. Brett King is the CEO of the American Academy of Financial Management, and an internationally acknowledged expert on wealth management and private banking with an emphasis on the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Prof. King is also the founder of User Strategy, a boutique consultancy focused on improving customer interaction for leading financial services companies and businesses. His clients include HSBC, Citigroup, UBS, Standard Chartered, CSFB, and BNP Paribas.

Mr Paul Dowling, Principal Analyst, East & Partners Pty Ltd

Mr Dowling is a co-founder of East & Partners, a leading analyst and consulting firm in Asia Pacific’s business and institutional banking markets. Mr Dowling has worked with the majority of the region’s leading business banks over the past 12 years and has special interests in market segmentation analysis and relationship management modelling in business banking. He has previously held senior consulting roles within the executive search industry and the technology research industry, working in Asia, North America and Europe with a global top five search practice and Gartner Group of the US respectively.

Mr Simon Lang, Managing Director, Mass 3rm

As an independent consultant with over 15 years experience in Retail and Credit Card business Units developing business and projects, Mr Simon Lang helps many Payment focused organisations established their presence within the Asian region. Simon has overseen the management of a range of projects including Mobile payment projects, Contactless card projects and chip card EMV related projects. His clientele includes names such as MAOSCO, GE Capital Finance & National Australia Bank. Previously, Simon was part of Visa Worldwide Services, Mobile Innovation Unit, as an Asia Pacific extension of the US based Unit. He led the deployment of the Visa Mobile Contactless Payment Pilot in Malaysia in 2006 supported by Maxis and Maybank. Simon is a member of the Project Management Institute.